


My World

by Jacqualine



Category: Anne with an E (TV)
Genre: Advent Calendar, F/F, Kindred Spirits Advent Calendar, Melancholy, Nostalgia, christmas drabble, lifetime of love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28203537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jacqualine/pseuds/Jacqualine
Summary: Day Twenty of the Kindred Spirits Advent Calendar - Jo reflects on the love of her life.
Relationships: Josephine Barry/Gertrude
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: Kindred Spirits Advent Calendar





	My World

Josephine closed her eyes as the carriage rocked back and forth, lulling her into a sleepy state, not quite sleeping but lost somewhere on the edge of dreamland. She was on her way to Avonlea, to spend Christmas with her nephew and his family. He was such a boring dullard, along his wife. Jo hated spending time with them, but she forced herself to, hoping she might have an impact on her great-nieces, Diana and Minnie May. William and Eliza were so proper, it bored Josephine to tears, but it wasn't too late for those girls, she could see the spark of life and rebellion in them both. She wished just once in their miserable lives, William and his wife would stop caring about the opinions of others and actually lived.

She smiled to herself when she thought of Gertrude...how she had lived. She had a thirst for life and soaked up every moment she could. Memories of her beloved Gert came flooding back.

"Come on Jo!" Gert called over her shoulder, running through the freshly fallen snow, completely naked except for her boots.

"You're mad." Josephine yelled back, staring at Gert's bottom, shaking and bouncing as she ran. 

"Madly in love with you." Gert said as she turned and faced Josephine, standing on the front porch of the cabin they were staying in for Christmas. A chalet in France, it belonged to Gertrude's cousin and was very isolated. "Come play in the snow with me, my beloved." Gert said before she spread her arms wide and fell backward into the snow, letting out a laughing scream as the snow engulfed her naked form. A moment later, Jo was pulling off her own nightgown with plans to join Gertrude in the snow.

"Dance with me my love." An older Gert said to Josephine. It was Christmas Eve in their beautiful Charlottetown manor, the house was perfectly decorated, the staff never failed to make everything beautiful, the candles on the tree were lit, flickering shadows over Gertrude's face.

"There isn't any music." Jo replied, smiling at the woman who held her heart in her hands.

"I hear music whenever you are near. Come, I'll lead."

And so they held each other and spun around the room to the music in Gertrude's heart.

"Don't let the world pass you by." Gertrude said to Josephine. They were laying in their bed, their final parting wouldn't be long now, a few days if not mere hours according to the doctor. 

"You are my world." Jo said to her, holding Gert in her arms.

"You were mine. Finding you was the very best thing that ever happened to me."

"To us."

"You know I almost didn't go to that bookshop. I was supposed to go to tea with my mother, but as I walked by, I felt the most intense feeling to enter it."

"It must have been fate." Jo tried hard to keep the tears from her eyes and her voice, she didn't want Gert's last moments to be filled with tears. 

Outside the sound of voices rose up, a group of Christmas carollers out to raise money for the poor. "Open the window Jo...I want to hear them singing." Gert asked. Jo tucked another blanket over Gert to keep her warm and then moved to the window, opening it enough to let the music in. "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" sung in pretty harmonies. Jo turned around to ask Gertrude if she should call out a request and stilled. 

Gertrude was gone, off to new adventures...

A year later the pain was still sharp, so much that it was like a constant ache in her chest, but she was doing what Gertrude had asked...she wasn't letting the world pass her by.


End file.
